1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a toy puppet and, more particularly, to a puppet which is supportable either on a human torso for manipulative play action purposes, or on a humanoid-like display support for display purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Small- and large-scale manipulatable puppets resembling an animal, person or like figure are well-known for their play value and entertainment appeal to all audiences, especially children. Such puppets include the full-bodied articulated puppets having jointed string-supported limbs which are separately manipulatable from above the puppet, as well as miniature finger puppets and hand puppets. The finger puppets are manipulated solely by the manipulator's fingers, whereas the hand puppets generally require the manipulator's entire hand. The manipulator may use all the fingers of his hand to move the puppet's mouth or, in some cases, the manipulator inserts at least one finger into the puppet head, and inserts his other fingers into the puppet's respective limbs to provide full-bodied puppet movement.
Although generally satisfactory for their intended play nd entertainment purposes, as well as for educational and physical coordination purposes, the finger- and hand-puppets of the prior art are miniature figures in the sense that they must generally conform to the size of the manipulator's fingers and/or hand. In order to provide a more life-sized puppet, it is desirable to increase the overall dimensions of the finger- and hand-puppets to a size which is larger than the average human hand. However, only the puppet head of such larger-sized puppets is directly supported by the manipulator's hand. The puppet arms and legs are typically left unsupported and unmanipulatable. Such dangling limbs impart a very unappealing and undesirable limp apperarance for the puppet. As a result, the limp puppet not only fails to create the impression of a realistic-looking large-scale puppet figure, but also fails to properly display the puppet in, for example, a commercial setting.
In order to increase the play, entertainment, educational and coordination value of a large-sized puppet, it is very desirable for the puppet to assume an embracing-, cuddling- and hugging-type posture with the person. To the best of my knowledge, no manipulative puppet exists in the prior art which is supportable on the manipulator's person, or which is positioned in a hugging-type posture during use.